The Littlest Man is 3!

A very sleepy and happy boy full of evidence from the day's activities. Fresh raspberries popsicles and chocolate cake still gracing his face . Life is good!
No more riding on his sisters pink Barbie Hot Wheels;)
Noah is captivated with Thomas and trains right now and it has been a lot of fun to add to his collection.
Grandma and Grandpa Watkins, and Aunt Molly came out for the day on Wednesday to celebrate his birthday. Noah chowed on Grandma's yummy brownies!
The Thomas quilt is in the works for Noah-I may just finish it if Noah allows me to take it away for awhile.

Three years ago-yesterday, it was a Sunday afternoon and I was taking a nap with Bell who was not much over 2 years old. A strange thing woke me from my sleep-something that I had never experienced-LABOR-THAT STARTED NATURALLY! Noah was our fifth yet to arrive and with all four of our older kiddos, I had been induced-I had never had the excitement of being able to say-This is it! I was pretty excited, with the likelihood of Noah being our last, it felt like such an incredible gift from the Lord to be able to have a moment like this. I still just cannot begin to express how precious this was to me. And how peaceful the transition was into Noah's entrance into our family. I waited for about a half hour to see if these contractions were regular, and while I paid close attention, I cleaned of course:) Still makes me laugh. I was still in quite a bit of shock because it was two weeks before his due date(another oddity-the other kiddos were always late). Well... I got the fun oppritunity to call Matt, who was in a meeting at church, and say...."I am in labor, you better hurry" We always knew that if I were to go into active labor on my own, I may just end up delivering at home with how quick my labors were(with the exception of my first). And of course to make the story a little more interesting, Matt did not pick up his phone the first few times I called and I was just imagining packing up all four of the kiddos myself and hauling them into the hospital while in labor-could have been interesting;) So, as I waited for Matt to call back, I called Mom and said "Can you come now?", Finished packing for the hospital, and had a friend come over to watch the kids till Mom arrived. Matt and I had such fun being able to walk in to the hospital and say, We are in labor! And sure enough as soon as I was settled into a room, they discovered what we already knew, Noah would be arriving very soon! Finally we would be holding the child I had known we had yet to meet since Cole's birth.

Noah turned 3 yesterday! I am amazed at how watching a little man grow can carry with it such tremendous joy and ache at the same time. Anxious to see who he grows to be, loving the new stages but wanting him to stay cuddled in my lap forever too. Yesterday, Noah was especially cuddly, I went out in the backyard to play with him, and all he wanted to do was sit in the grass all cuddled up in my lap. Thank you Jesus! What a perfect day for me to capture in my memories.